Social Media Mistakes to Avoid When Promoting Your Cause﻿

If you are hoping to grow support for your cause, you need efficient marketing strategies that promote and raise awareness about your campaign. One great, easy way to market your cause and cultivate a loyal audience is through social media. However, many individuals and organizations overestimate the simplicity of social media and make several mistakes on their platforms. As you begin creating content for your social media outlets, it’s important that you avoid these five common pitfalls.

Overwhelming Your Audience

Posting regularly on your social media accounts about your cause is an important way to keep your audience engaged, however, posting too frequently can do more harm than good. Overwhelming your followers’ feed with images and videos that promote your campaign will feel a lot like spam. Your audience will eventually become numb to your messaging efforts which can lead to them potentially deciding to unfollow your social accounts. Keep your posting schedule consistent but don’t overwhelm your audience.

Failing to Tag Individuals and Organizations

When posting content about your cause, be sure that you tag individuals and organizations that are directly involved with your work. If you are posting a photo of volunteers on the job, tag each individual in the photo. If you are writing a post about a foundation you are hoping to raise funds for, tag that organization’s social accounts in your post. Not only does tagging encourage those individuals and organizations to engage with your content but it also allows their audience and followers to be exposed to your content, further increasing the reach of your promotional efforts.

Not Posting Natively on Each Platform

Some social media platforms allow you to share your content to your other social media accounts. While this saves time, it is better if you post each piece of content natively on each platform. Because every social media outlet wants users to spend more time on their specific platform, posts that are uploaded natively receive more promotion from their algorithms. When you post a photo on Instagram, instead of simultaneously posting it on Facebook, take the few extra minutes to post that photo on each platform separately.

Having an Inconsistent Voice and Style

One of the quickest ways to lose your audience’s attention is to post photos, videos, and other content that do not have one streamline voice or style. Posting a beautiful photo of a volunteer helping a child one day and then sharing a photo of what you ate for lunch at McDonald’s the next day is too confusing for your audience. Your followers want to know what to expect from your social accounts and if your voice and style of content is inconsistent, they will be less likely to engage with your posts or might even choose to unfollow your accounts. When posting content to promote your cause, be sure you stick to one style and keep the same voice throughout all your posts.

Neglecting Your Audience

Social media is a great way for you to connect with your audience and cultivate personal relationships with them. However, if you fail to respond to comments or interact with content that you are tagged in, your audience will begin to feel neglected and they will start to see you as just another faceless social account. Because social media is centered around building relationships, communicating, and connecting with others, it is important that you strive to focus on these three things when engaging with your audience.

Social media is a great tool to take advantage of in order to better spread your message about your cause. As you work to establish your digital presence online and promote your cause, be sure to avoid these common mistakes. As you do so, you will see more engagement from your audience and even an increase in your followers.